The Runaways
by bkleanne
Summary: Natalie and her younger brother are taken away from the life that they know. In a bit of fortune, or misfortune, they find themselves on the road back to New York. On the road they meet friends and enemies of their stepfather, who they are trying to reach
1. Chapter 1

I looked around at my room. It was empty. I was moving again, but this time it would be different, very different. My brother, Jason, and I had been living with my mom and my step-dad, Cain. My real dad got mad and fought for custody of Jason, but Jason refused to leave my mom and I, no matter what the court said.

My mom had fallen ill with cancer in her lungs a few months afterward and so it was just Jason, Cain, and me in our big three story house. The courts decided that it was best for both of us to go live with my dad, because Cain was a vampire and obviously dangerous to us children. I had yelled at the judge and that didn't help any because he stated that Cain had taught us bad manners. They wouldn't even let us say goodbye. Cain wasn't allowed to see us before we left, or even be in the house when we were packing. No one seemed to remember that we had lived with him for four years and he hadn't harmed us. He never even joked about it. His face in the court room when the final decision was made still haunts me. He looked as if someone was holding him under the sunlight.

I heard footsteps on the stairs and quickly hid my house key and $6,000 in my pocket. It would be enough to get back to Cain and my mom if Jason and I ever felt the need.

"C'mon hun. It's time to leave." It was my dad. I shouted a quick OK and swept my eyes over my room one last time. I refused to let the tears perched on my eyelashes fall. I would be strong, for Jason. He was only seven, and had been so attached to Cain; it would really be hard for him.

I headed down the stairs, not acknowledging my father. Not half-way down the stairs, I heard a very familiar voice. Cain was yelling at some police officers in the doorway. I glanced back up at my father, who had a disgusted look on his face. So he had heard him too. Knowing I'd be completely safe I hopped the railing and fell to the floor below.

"Catch me Cain!"

He rolled his eyes but lazily held out his arms at the last minute and caught me.

"Exhilarating." I beamed at him.

"You're seventeen. Don't you think you're just a little too old to be doing things like that?" he raised a silver eyebrow, but had a playful smirk on his face. The cops stood stunned. They hadn't even had time to try to catch me. Cain had exceptional reflexes, even for a vampire.

"Me too! Me too!" Came Jason's shout from above, but my father caught him before he could get to the rail.

"Hey! Let him go!" I shouted from my perch in Cain's arms.

"Calm down Natalie. Jason is his son." Cain soothed as he set me upright. Soon after my father came around the stairs dragging Jason by his wrist.

"You! Get away from my daughter!" He raged, "Hello! Aren't you the Police? You're here to keep my kids safe!" The two cops floundered for a moment before gingerly pushing me away from Cain. I contemplated stomping on their feet, but figured it wouldn't help the situation any.

"My apologies. I simply wanted to say goodbye to Marie's children, and get into my own house." Cain spoke of my mom with a reverence that my father had never had for her. I couldn't help but snicker at the shade of purple that my father's face turned.

"Out! To the car, now! We don't encourage monsters in their humor." My dad pushed Jason and I out of the door and into the car without letting us say goodbye.

Everything was foreign to me. The scenery, the buildings, the people, even the style of clothing was strange to my eyes through the window of my dad's car.

"Well? What do you think?" He called from the front seat. His wife, my step-mom, turned around to look at me.

"I feel" I started, not particularly trying to be rude, "Like I've been thrown back in time. Ya know, back into the days of cowboys and indians."

My dad gave me a stern look through the rear view mirror and my step-mom pouted in her seat.

"Does she have to come live with us? She looks like something out of a horror movie." I glared at my step-sister. She was a senior in high school, a year older than me, but she still hung on Hannah Montana's every word.

"Yeah? Well you look like Hannah Montana threw up all over you." I sneered. Jason snickered in between us at my comment.

"Shut up twerp" Shannon growled at Jason, ignoring my comment.

Angry, I took a hold of Shannon's curly blond hair and pulled.

"Don't talk to him like that." I hissed.

"Ray!" My step-mom yelled at my dad, "Stop her! She's hurting Shannon!"

"C'mon Natalie, calm down and let go." My dad glowered at me through the rear view mirror again, "Don't make me stop this car."

"Stop the car! I don't care!" I pulled harder and Shannon shrieked. Jason was in hysterics, "I didn't want to be in Hicktown with dumb and dumber here anyway! Take me back to mom!"

The car fell silent, we were parked on the side of the road, and all you could hear was the roar of an eighteen wheeler as it whizzed past us.

"your mother chose to put you in danger, Natalie. She married a vampire." My dad looked sad. My anger flared again.

"Can was a wonderful father. He had a good job, he took care of us, he paid for mom's hospital fees. He drinks bagged blood, he takes Jason to the park when I can't. He's never been anything but honest and kind to us, and that's more than I can say for someone else in this car, who decided we weren't worth his time. Who moved to the middle of nowhere and then got jealous when mom found someone better and began to lie and say that he had always loved us and wanted us to be with him no matter what." I glared at the back of my father's head.

"See? He's brainwashed you sweetie."

"No." I bit, "He treated me like I was his daughter, not just a tax reduction."

Jason had quit laughing and was clinging to my striped tank top. Shannon tugged on my arm and I let her hair go.

"Let's go Jason." I opened the car door.

"Natalie!" Jason and my dad scrambled after me.

"Where are we going?" I looked down at my sad seven year old brother. He had like Cain a lot.

"Home, Jason. We're going home." I reached through my step-mom's window and popped the trunk of the car.

"Natalie, listen to reason." My dad begged.

"No, Da-Ray. No, we're going home, where we belong."

"You can't walk all the way back to New York. We're in Texas." My step-mom pointed out as she and Shannon got out of the car. When Shannon slammed her door I got a bright idea and slammed my door shut too, leaving the front doors open. The keys were still in the ignition.

"No, we'll get a ride."

"What are you gonna do? Scare someone out of their car?" Shannon thought she was so clever.

"No, I'm gonna act like you and seduce them out of their car like a slut." Shannon's eyes bugged and she did exactly what I had wanted her to do. She lunged like an overstuffed elephant, and I sidestepped her attack, pushing her down into the ditch. My dad and step-mom rushed after her, and grateful that my plan had worked, I practically threw Jason in the car and shut his door. Before any of them had figured out what was really going on I had started the car and peeled out headed back towards New York.

"That was" Jason searched for the appropriate word, "AWESOME!" He finally shouted. I smiled big.

"Glad you liked it." I slowed down to the speed limit. Just because we were runaways didn't mean we were above the law, this place was crawling with cops.

"Hey, if dad calls the police will we get to be in a high speed car chase like in those movies Cain rented for us to watch?" Jason's little green eyes bugged at the thought. I cringed slightly.

"As cool as that would be, I hope not. We're not in a sports car you know. This is a grandma car." His shoulders fell, "But we can sleep in a hotel tonight, just like we did when Cain had to go on that business trip and mom wouldn't let him leave us at home." His smile came back and he turned his attention to the two-bit radio. It wasn't long until he was sleeping contentedly against the window, snoring softly.


	2. Chapter 2

The hotel we stopped at was not the best I'd ever been in, but it deffinently wasn't the worst I'd been in either. As we walked up the stairs to our room I felt as if we would fall through to the bar below. The stairs creaked horribly at every step we took and several other patrons complained loudly when we passed.

"Do I have to take a shower?" Jason whined.

"Yes." I threw some clothes at him, "You reek." I teased. He stuck out his tongue at me before scampering into the bathroom.

While Jason was in the shower, I searched through my bag and found a chain to string the house key on. It was cold and heavy against my chest, but gave me new determination to get home.

"I'm going to need some kind of map." I mumbled to myself, looking around the common area. The hotel had four floors with four apartments on each floor. Each apartment was divided into one bathroom, one kitchen, one common area, and two bedrooms. The bedroom to my right was being used and Jason and I would sleep in the bedroom on the left.

"Talking to oneself is the first sign of going crazy."

I spun around fast enough to make myself dizzy.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." The stranger extended his hand. "Gabriel."

I shook his hand and squeaked a hello.

"That's my room." He smiled kindly and pointed to the room on the right before shedding his gloves and coat. When he exited his room, the moonlight seemed to cling to his pale skin. Vampire. The word jumped at me and beat at my tongue. I wanted to know if my assumption was correct.

"What's your name miss?" Gabriel asked over the top of a newspaper he had stuck in front of his face.

"Vamp-NATALIE! Natalie. My name's Natalie." I blushed and suddenly became very interested in re-organizing Jason and my bags.

"That's a pretty name." He chuckled. As I zipped up my bag I almost missed the next few words, "You're correct though, I am one."

"I'm sorry. It was rude of my to almost blurt it out like that." I was flustered and my sentence came out rushed. The silence that followed was extremely awkward. What was wrong with me?

"All squeaky clean!" Jason exclaimed, banging the bathroom door open effectively breaking the silence and snapping my back into my normal, non-flustered self.

"Good, then you can take our bags into our room. Throw your dirty clothes in a plastic bag. I'll start supper. Oh! And say hello to Gabriel. He's sleeping in the other room." Jason nodded and said hello while dragging our bags to our room.

"What's for supper?" Gabriel sauntered into the kitchen after me.

"I'm not sure. Do you eat food?" I inquired sarcastically. Fortunately Gabriel took the joke with grace.

"Yes, I do. Not often, but if someone cooks it, I'll usually eat it."

"Usually?" The small fridge had enough ingredients to make a small made-up pasta and meat dish.

"I don't like fish." He sniffed.

I had a smart remark for that, but I stood up to quickly, not watching what I was doing, and lost my remark as the top of my head slammed into the cabinet above the fridge.

"Holy-mmmm" I muffled my own stream of curses when, through watery eyes, I saw Jason walk into the kitchen. I tried to keep his mouth clean, according to my mom's wishes, though sometimes mine was worse than a sailor.

"You okay Nat?" Jason inquired before climbing into the chair beside Gabriel and slapping a deck of cards onto the table.

"Just fine." I croaked. "And don't call me that. I'm not a small, annoying, green bug."

As I busied myself with fixing our supper, Gabriel and Jason played cards. I lost count of how many times my seven-year old card shark of a brother won. Each time he won he would crow and scatter the cards around the table. Once I even caught Gabriel with a frustrated look on his face. I had to admit, he was good with kids. We hadn't known him for more than three hours and already Jason was playing with Gabriel like he did with Cain. For one small moment, I almost felt motherly, but then I came back to my senses. I was a teenager on the run with her little brother. I contemplated asking Gabriel for help, but shot the idea down. We didn't know anything about him. In fact, for all we know he could be a serial killer and we could be his next victims. I rolled my eyes. I would let my brother play cards with a serial killer.

While I was waiting for the pasta to finish cooking I looked the two males over. Jason looked clean with his wet hair combed back and a fresh navy blue shirt on over nice blue jeans. He was bare-foot, but then again, he usually was. Gabriel looked, not ragged, but not well taken care of either. His hair was a mess, but you could tell it had been cut recently. The black strands fell right above brown eyes, flat brown eyes. He didn't have deep brown eyes that you could look into forever and ever. They were simple eyes that didn't really draw any attention. His pale skin was a stark contrast to his hair and clothes, which consisted of a dark gray sweater that fit him nicely, black slacks with mud spots around the bottom, and black and white converse. He didn't look dangerous, simply tired and stretched, like he'd seen too many things, been to too many places. He definitely looked as if he could use a long vacation.

The microwave stopped and after I had drained the pasta, added the sauce and meat, and put it back into the microwave for a few more minutes, I contemplated my own looks. I was not what people considered normal. I had dark brown hair that was cut short in the back and got longer as you came to the front, it had green and blue streaks in it, something that had gotten me into a lot of trouble with Cain. My friends had convinced my to put the streaks in my hair and when I came home that evening Cain had a fit, telling me that I had ruined my lovely hair. He was so old-fashioned. My style, however was something that my mother and Cain constantly nagged me about. For example, right now I was wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt with the neck cut out of it so it hung off of my shoulders under a lime-green and black striped tank-top. I had a belt painted like piano keys slung around my hips and a tattered and torn black skirt over lime green tights and black knee-high boots adorned with buckles from their tops almost to their soles. I could no longer count the times on my fingers and toes that my mother and Cain had tried to get me to wear something pink or frilly. Just the thought made me want to retch. Cain had gotten me a diamond bracelet for Christmas last year, but it never replaced the many plastic and rubber bracelets on my arms.

I pulled the pasta creation out of the microwave just as Jason began teaching Gabriel the trick to winning his own made-up game.

"Okay boys, put the cards up and set the table." They managed to find plastic Dixie cups, paper plates, and plastic forks for us to use in the cabinet I had hit my head on. When Gabriel mentioned the incident I smacked him in the face with a paper plate.

"This is good Miss Natalie." Gabriel praised over his fork full of food.

"Don't call me Miss. I'm not even twenty."

"Cain says she's a terrible teenager and that one day I will be too!" Jason supplied, accidentally flinging sauce onto the table with a wave of his fork.

"I know someone named Cain. What's his last name?"

"Wells." I spoke into my cup, but saw Gabriel's face light up in recognition.

"Cain Wells. He's still alive? Goodness, he must be, what? A thousand?" The man's face split into a goofy grin and I couldn't help but smile myself when Jason started laughing at Gabriel's insinuation that Cain was ancient.

"Six hundred and forty three actually. His birthday was last week." Jason pointed out after he quit giggling. Something nagged at the back of my mind, but I blew it off as a headache coming on.

"How do you two know Cain?" Gabriel looked at Jason, but it was obvious the question was directed at me.

"He's our step-father." My answer was met with a clattering fork and a loud laugh. "What's so funny about that?" I asked, irritated.

"We must not know the same Cain. The Cain I know is aristocratic, painfully truthful, in no way kind or father material, and if he ever saw you dressed like that in his house he'd boot you out into the streets."

"Cain is very kind. He's the best Dad ever!" Jason exclaimed through a mouth-full of pasta.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." I chided.

"Cain Wells? Are you positive that's his name?"

"Yes." I rolled my eyes at Gabriel

"This I have got to see." He murmured.

"Then come with us." Gabriel froze

"Excuse me?"

"Come with us. We don't know the way. We need someone who's traveled a bit, and since you're curious about the person we're trying to get to why not come with us?" I hadn't actually meant to ask Gabriel to come with us, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I was a teenage girl trying to take care of her seven year old brother while fighting my way across the U.S. to New York. I needed help, and Gabriel just happened to be the one who came along at the right time. He would help us, I was determined.

"How do you know I'm not going to try to kill you in your sleep? How do you know I'm not dangerous, or hiding something from you. How do you know I'm not lying about knowing Cain? I could be. You should be more careful, Natalie." Gabriel's eyes became hard and he rose from the table.

"If you were going to kill us you had ample time to do so. Waiting until dark would not make a bit of difference seeing as there's not much we could do against you anyway." I started, following him into the common area. I realized just how tired I was when I swayed a bit in the doorway. " You could be dangerous, or hiding something from us, but I know you're not lying about Cain. I could see the recognition in your eyes. It's hard for someone to get by with lying to me because I lie a lot myself, I know how to catch someone in a lie. Don't tell me to be careful, I know to be careful. I have a younger brother to look after, and I know for a fact I can't make it home by myself." I stood over him as he sat on the couch reading the newspaper. He was ignoring me! The gall this man had! "PLEASE!" I tore the newspaper in half.

Gabriel simply glared at the torn newspaper. Good, now he couldn't read it.

"At least have the decency to listen to someone when they are talking to you!" I shouted, then noticed Jason in the doorway and hoped he hadn't heard my whole speech."Jason. Go to bed hon. We need to leave bright and early in the morning." He nodded and trudged off into our room.

"Please. We need help." I whispered. Exhausted and upset, I sank to the floor in front of the couch. Gabriel didn't respond, he didn't even quit glaring at the newspaper. His face, contorted into a frown was the last thing I saw as exhaustion and a massive headache swept me into unconsciousness.

**Woo...yay, so second chapter. Exciting. I liked writing this chapter, it was fun. Actually, not a lot happened in this chapter, even though it's a little longer than I thought it would be. So, be nice and review, because it's an encouragement. A special thanks to MandaMassacre for being my first review-er. **

**This story is somewhat different than what I usually write, for one, I actually have a good plan for where this one is going, and I like this story a lot. For the first time in my life though, I can't remember how I came up with the idea for this story....**

**well, laterz Bkleanne**


	3. Chapter 3

"Natalie."

Something tickled my nose.

"Naaatalie."

Something tickled my nose again and I swatted at it this time. I had no desire to open my eyes or move. Whatever it was, it was just going to have to go away and wait.

"Good grief, girl. Are you ignoring me on purpose?"

"She won't get up unless you do this."

I knew what came next and sat up quickly, just in time to catch Jason, who was about to start tickling my sides. He had discovered a year ago that no matter how much I wanted to stay in bed if you tickled me I gave in and got up without a fight.

"You little brat," I grumbled, poking him in the side. "I was dreaming."

Gabriel sat on the floor beside the bed twirling a feather between two fingers. Yesterday came rushing back to me and I groaned and dropped my head into my hands. Jason pressed his forehead against mine and proceeded to pat my head.

"Do you have another headache?" He asked. I instantly felt bad. He shouldn't be worrying about me. I should be taking care of both of us so he didn't have to worry about anything.

"No, I'm fine." I dropped my hands to my lap and kissed the top of his head before pushing him off of me and climbing out of bed. "Make sure all of your things are together. We'll leave and eat breakfast on the road as soon as possible."

Jason began scurrying around the room, locating all of his things. I left him to it and followed Gabriel into the common area. He balled up the ripped newspaper and tossed it into the wastebasket before sitting on the couch where it had just been.

"So I'm guessing your answer is still no." I looked hopefully at him, but he simply nodded.

Fine, I could find a way to do this myself. It couldn't be that hard; could it?

"Everything's together!" Jason called from our room. I took one last look at Gabriel sitting on the couch staring into space and went to gather our bags.

"C'mon then, let's go home."

"Bye Gabriel!"

Gabriel started when Jason climbed up onto the couch and hugged him. I tried not to smile and herded Jason out into the hall and down the stairs.

It was extremely bright outside. The sun heated everything unmercifully so the car was stifling for a few miles until the air conditioner started working real good.

I couldn't help but wonder what had become of Ray, my step-mom, and Shannon. Oh, well, who needs them anyway?

Miles and miles of dust and nothing flew along behind us and I didn't even know if we were going in the right direction. I knew that we had been in Texas when I'd stolen the car, but I wasn't sure if we were still in Texas at the moment or if we had left the gigantic state behind last night. I got Jason to look for signs by making it into a game. Whoever read the sign first won. Of course that meant he won most of the time because I was preoccupied with driving. It wasn't long until he read a sign that said we were headed into Arkansas. One state down, too many to go.

Occasionally a car would pass us or be passed by us, but for the most part we were by ourselves on the interstate until we had been in Arkansas for a little over two hours. A black car with heavily tinted windows slid up behind us and stayed there, right on my tail. It didn't try to pass us, nor did it turn onto any of the exit ramps. It was almost as if it were attached to our car. If I sped up, it sped up. If I slowed down, it slowed down. It changed lanes with me and passed cars with me.

"Do you recognize that car behind us, Jason?"

Jason turned around to get a good look at the car.

"No. why do you?"

"No. I don't."

Jason soon began to complain that he was hungry. That black car made me want to stay in the car, but I needed to stretch my legs and Jason started begging for a bathroom along with food. I caved and took the next exit ramp into a town called Malvern.

"Look for a Wal-Mart." I told Jason, he eagerly pressed his face to the window and craned his neck every way, looking for a Wal-Mart.

I looked into my rearview mirror but I didn't see the black car anywhere. I sighed, relieved.

"There!" Jason exclaimed after a few minutes, pointing off to the right.

I couldn't help myself, I looked around at least four times for that stupid black car before I let Jason get out of our car. When I pulled the keys out I noticed that I was low on gas. I'd have to fill up before we left.

Wal-Mart wasn't crowded, which I took as a good sign. We ate McDonalds and walked around for a while.

"Can we get a book or something?" Jason tugged on my sleeve, "Just sitting there reading signs is boring."

I bought him three coloring books and colors, a book to read, and a bag of chips to snack on. He climbed back into the car content.

With a full tank of gas, empty roads stretched out in front of me, and a good map the black car and all other worries slipped from my mind. I searched the radio till I found a station that we both agreed on and we were on our way once more. We left Arkansas, slipped through the tip of Missouri and started into Kentucky without any incident. I didn't stop until I could no longer hold my eyes open and I had drifted to the side of the road for the second time.

"We need a room." I told the clerk in the small motel I finally stopped at. I even managed to say it without yawning. I had one of my bags, one of Jason's bags and Jason in my arms so the clerk motioned for another motel worker to help me. He handed me the key to our room and the other worker took our bags. We passed a window on the way to the stairs and I looked outside.

I froze and tried my hardest not to scream. The black car was parked outside under a street lamp. I felt strangled, like I couldn't breathe. Someone was following us, there was no other explanation. There was no way this was a coincidence, but where had the car come from? It hadn't been behind us this whole time, and it hadn't been there when I'd pulled in. I was positive of that because I'd stumbled into that parking space and nearly dropped Jason, but managed to steady myself with the street lamp.

"Miss, is there a problem?" the motel worker carrying our bags had already started up the stairs, but when she noticed I wasn't following she'd turned back to watch me.

"No. No problem." I murmured. She nodded and I followed her up the stairs.

"What's your room number?"

"24." I held the key out to her and she opened the door for me and carried the bags into the room, setting them on the bed.

"Thank you so much." I tipped her and she left.

Jason didn't wake up when I tucked him into the bed, or when I climbed in the bed beside him.

I don't know how long I'd slept before it happened. I just know that it wasn't enough sleep for me to be prepared for anything.

There was a crash and I was slammed into consciousness. I sat up and turned the bedside lamp on. Before I could even see properly, the light went out with a click. I sat frozen, unable to see anything, but able to hear someone moving around.

"There's no reason to panic." The voice was tired and rough. I felt the bed sink when someone sat down on the edge. My throat was dry and I couldn't get my brain to work properly. It was thinking way too fast. So many thoughts were swerving through my mind I wasn't able to make proper sense of any of them and the command to get the heck out of there with Jason kept getting deleted somewhere on the way to the rest of my body.

The silence was deafening, but it gave me a chance to straighten my thoughts and gather my courage.

"You know-" the intruder started, but I never discovered what it was he wondered if I knew because I slammed both of my feet into his side. It hurt like all get out, but it served its purpose. The intruder slid off the bed and I rolled over Jason, taking him with me over the other side of the bed. He shouted in surprise but I shushed him and we crawled underneath the bed. I could hear the intruder walking around the room, looking for us. Just as I thought he had given up a hand shot under the bed and latched onto my wrist.

"That was not very nice."

"Like I care," I spat back at him. He tossed me onto the bed and clicked the bedside lamp on. I threw a pillow at him and tried to run for it again, but he caught me and pushed me back onto the bed. I looked up at him and froze.

"Oh, crap."


	4. Chapter 4

I stared at my father as he sat on the edge of my bed holding his side.

"What are you doing here?"

"Let's see. My daughter threatens my family, hijacks my car and runs away with my son. What am I doing here?" He sneered. "You were mad if you thought I wouldn't catch you."

"Or you could say I was a positive thinker." I shot back.

"Jason, come out from under the bed." He patted the bed with a heavy hand and Jason slid out on the opposite side. "Good boy, now make sure all of your things are together."

Unable to think of anything else that he could do at the moment, Jason began checking the bags and making sure everything was accounted for. I watched him, refusing to break the uncomfortable silence that settled around us.

"I guess you're wondering where I got the car." My father stated. I could tell he was simply trying to make conversation.

"No, not really. I don't much care what you do." I intended to make this as hard as possible for him, maybe he would give up.

"I bought it from a friend when we finally made it back into town. It actually didn't take that long to find you. I mean, you checked into the first hotel you came across. That wasn't all that smart if you're running." He chuckled. For the first time since we'd left the last hotel, I wished that Gabriel was here. While I could outwit my father or surprise him, I couldn't overpower him. He'd followed us across four states so far, and it seemed that he was bound and determined that he would drag us back across those same four states again.

My father went on to regale me with the tale of how he caught up with us and came up with a plan to take us back and the such like, but I wasn't listening. The gears in my mind began spinning in overdrive as I watched Jason re-wrap the cord around my hair dryer. Moments later, I had a plan forming in my mind.

"Jason, will you get me a glass of water?" I asked him, rubbing my throat as if it were sore. He nodded and headed to the bathroom which was on the opposite side of the room from the door. I thanked him when he returned, and my father stopped his story to watch me drink the water. I didn't drink it all, just enough to wet my throat, which actually was dry.

"Are you okay?" My father asked. I nodded and murmured fine. He leaned over to touch me and I jerked back, at the same time dropping the glass, making sure it hit the night stand and shattered, spilling water everywhere.

"I'll get a towel." Jason volunteered.

"No!" I quickly covered myself. "Help me pick up the glass, it will be easier for you to see it than dad. He can go get a towel."

They both nodded.

Jason bent down to start picking up glass, but as soon as my father was out of sight in the bathroom, I pulled him back up, grabbed my purse from the night stand, and, avoiding the glass, rushed to the door, dragging Jason behind me.

"What the-" He started, but I shushed him and kept moving, pushing him ahead of me down the stairs. Not long after, I heard my father in the room, begin to shout.

The hotel desk clerk yelled something at me too, but we were out of the door before he finished his sentence.

"Gabriel!" Jason exclaimed.

"Yeah, I wish." I mumbled, tugging on his sleeve. He didn't budge.

"Really, you wish?"

"Gabriel?" I'm sure I looked quite comical in the street light with a highly confused look on my face.

"Yeah, I kind of-," He started.

"It doesn't matter at the moment what you kind of." I urged, pulling him along with us. " Just get in the car."

It wouldn't start.

And now my dad was banging on the window, yelling at me to get out of the car right now or he'd…something or another…I didn't care, until I saw the flash of keys on his belt loop.

"You're father is such a charming person." Gabriel scrubbed a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I bet he's loving the fact that I've locked myself and my little brother in his car with a man he doesn't know." I commented, watching my father throw himself against the door, shaking the car.

"He's gonna hurt himself, Natalie." Jason tugged on my sleeve from the backseat. " I don't want him to hurt himself. Gabriel's with us so he can't hurt us."

My brother and I had a long, hard staring contest through the rearview mirror, but his I'm-serious-and-not-budging face won out in the end. My father was preparing for another charge, and before he could get started, I unlocked the door and stepped out. He faltered, but regained his pompous attitude soon after.

"You have disobeyed me." He stated. Thank you captain obvious, I thought to myself.

"Really, is that what they're calling it these days?"

"Your sarcasm is not impressing." He grabbed my arm and Gabriel growled across the car. My father's eyes flew to him, but he let go of me. I moved out of his reach as he and Gabriel squared off across the car. It was a challenge to see whose bark was the worst. This went on for a couple of minutes, the two of them just staring at each other, daring the other to speak. I became easily bored of watching them, though Jason was soaking it up like he was watching Superman, and decided to end the battle with one swift cut.

"He's a vampire, you'd never win."

My father recoiled and Gabriel rolled his eyes.

"You just can't stay quiet for very long can you?" Gabriel asked. I shrugged. He addressed my father, "Look. I'm helping these two make their way back home and we're going to need a car with a bit of speed and tinted windows. You just happen to have one, so why don't you toss the keys over and we'll be on our way. Once we're gone, you won't remember why you're here and you'll take your car back to your house."

I watched as my father tossed Gabriel his keys. Gabriel motioned for Jason and me to get into the black car. As we pulled away I watched my father get into his car and drive away into the opposite direction through the back window. Then I turned around in the front passenger seat and began messing with the radio. Gabriel had an I'm-going-to-start-explaining face. I held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't. Not until I've had a lot of rest." He raised an eyebrow at me and chuckled. "Tell me in the morning."

I checked that Jason was comfortable, and then slipped into a fitful sleep. Sometime during the night, Gabriel turned up the air conditioner and leaned my seat back. After that I fell into a deeper, more constant sleep.


End file.
